December 10th
"Did you grab the bandages?" Will asked from the big room in the infirmary.
Nico looked at the unicorn and rainbow bandages in his hands.
"No", he replied, looking around if anyone had seen him.
Footsteps were heard, and Nico hurriedly shoved the bandages in the far back of the medicine cabinet.
Will opened the door to the small medical supplies room, and started scouring the room for any sign of those cursed bandages.
"I'm fine, Will!", Nico protested.
Will turned for a second to shoot him a look. Nico looked down at his bleeding leg and shrugged, "It's not anything I can't manage!". Will frowned at him and continued to search.
Nico chuckled a bit, before he was suddenly pulled by the shadows and was sucked away. He felt the usual icy wind of shadow travel breeze past him, and the voices of the dead called to him. The voices had once felt scary to him, but now, he had learned to ignore them.
He zipped through the shadow, pretty sure of where he was going, and felt his feet land on a hard surface.
"Nico," Hades, his father, greeted him.
"Father," Nico nodded. "Is there anything you need?"
Hades sighed and Nico knew that whatever it was, it was going to be extremely boring.
"There is a man named George," Hades said, not very enthusiastically. "He is one-hundred and two now, and was supposed to die years ago. But Thanatos has a soft spot for him."
Nico internally groaned. He had done this kind of thing before, where Thanatos fell for a mortal and wouldn't take them to the underworld, so now, he had to do it instead.
"Alright," Nico sighed. "Where is he now?"
"He's a fisherman off the coast of Maine," Hades told him.
"Great. Where's the crystal?"
After the Giant War, Hades had decided to let Nico do his work for him. The problem was that Nico was only a demigod, and didn't have enough power to do the things Hades preferred not to. So, Hades made a crystal that Nico could take with him on these missions, and it would give him the powers of a god. Of course, the gods would hate for Nico to have so much power, so there were rules he had to follow. For instance, he couldn't use his powers against the gods, he had twenty-four hours to complete the mission and give the crystal back, etc.
Hades brought out the black and purple crystal and handed it to Nico. Nico grabbed the stone and brought it close to his neck, where it turned into a necklace. He felt the surge of godly power flow through his veins, and the freeing sensation of his wings growing back. He loved that feeling of power, but his dad had warned him that it was easy to be corrupted by the power, so, when he could, he imagined the people he would leave behind if he abused this power. Hazel, Will, Leo, Cerberus, and others.
"Good luck, son," Hades said to him.
Nico nodded and let himself be completely swallowed by the darkness.
It took about five minutes for Nico to shadow travel from the Underworld to Maine, and he landed on wet ground. He was now standing in the shadow of a tree, along the edge of a river. Nico looked around and spotted a man in overalls wearing a straw hat, fishing by the river.
Brushing himself off, Nico used his wings to fly above the water and towards the man by the river. He hovered over the water, right behind the man, and cleared his throat.
"Excuse me," Nico said, not very politely.
The man looked around and jumped when he saw Nico, hovering over the water with dark wings on his back.
"I have come to take you to the Underworld," Nico told the man bluntly. He didn't want to waste time chitchatting.
"W-what?" the man stuttered. "I-I can't leave yet. I have f-fishing to do!"
Nico rolled his eyes, "You know that fishing in December in Maine is illegal, right?"
The man stared at Nico.
"Just grab my hand, it won't hurt" the son of Hades said, stretching out his hand to him.
The man looked terrified at the sight of pale hand, and to Nico's annoyance, tried to run away.
Nico groaned and flew over to him. He grabbed the man's arm and summoned some of the power he had, to take them to the Underworld. In less than a second, the man was lifted from where he was, and was taken to the dark waiting room of the Underworld.
They landed in the black room, and the man gave out a small squeal. He dropped the mortal off on the ground, and was about to go back to his father's palace when the ferry guy, Charon, called out to him.
"Hey, Nico," he called.
"What?" Nico asked ruefully.
"Does this man have money on his grave?"
"No," Nico replied, knowing where this conversation was going.
"Then, I guess you'll have to stay here for a while, buddy," Charon said to the frightened man.
Nico looked at the man, and was annoyed that he felt bad for him. Not just for him, but for Thanatos too. Thanatos was practically cursed, with him being the god of death, but still having feelings for people. Nico and Thanatos had become pretty close, with him training Nico since the Battle of Manhattan, and Nico taking a part of his job.
"Wait!" Nico said, holding a hand out to Charon. "I'll find some money at his house and give it to you."
Charon and the man, George, both looked pleased at the proposition. Nico nodded to them both and disappeared once again
He reappeared in the forest on the edge of the river. Sighing, Nico looked around for any sign of where the old man's house was. His eyes caught on a bag a few feet away. It was brown and old, but it must have been George's.
Nico walked over to the bag and opened it. Inside was a whole lot of fishing gear, along with a slice of cake in a box, a book, and a wallet. Figuring that the least the man could do to repay Nico's kindness was to feed him, Nico ate the cake, and then opened the wallet. Inside the wallet was a ten dollar bill, which was more than enough for Charon.
Ready to be done with the mission and return to his boyfriend, he started to walk towards the shadows.
"Thank you!" A tiny voice called out from the river.
Nico turned, but he couldn't see anyone.
"I'm down here!" the voice piped up.
Nico started to walk towards the river bank. He got to the edge and looked down at the water, to see a tiny blue fish looking back at him. To his surprise, it began to speak.
"That man was trying to catch me!," the fish said, in a high-pitched voice.
Nico stared at the fish in disbelief.
"I mean," the fish continued, "I like the idea of being caught and becoming a companion for someone, but I don't want to be eaten."
"Y-you," Nico stuttered. "You want a home out of this river?"
"Yes!" the fish said enthusiastically. "Will you take me?"
"N-no, I can't," Nico told the creature. The fish looked at him with big, pleading eyes. Suddenly, an idea struck him.
"I actually have a friend who would love you as a. . . companion."
The fish's eyes brightened.
"And you don't have to worry about him eating you," Nico chuckled.
He grabbed the cake container and put it in the water. The fish swam into the plastic container, and Nico brought it up to the surface. Then, he fell into the realms of darkness and shadows once again, to appear in the waiting room of the ferry where Charon and George sat.
"Here you go," said Nico as he threw the wallet at Charon, and the ferryman caught it mid-air.
Nodding to George, Nico shadow traveled back to his dad's throne room.
"I'm back," Nico said, rather unenthusiastically.
"Good work, son," Hades said, mimicking his tone.
Nico walked up to his father and handed him the crystal. Hades took the stone and waved his hand to dismiss him. With the fish in the cake container clutched tightly in his grip, he shadow-traveled back to Camp Half-Blood.
"Where have you been!" Will shrieked from behind him.
Hiding a smile and sighing, Nico turned around to face his angry boyfriend and his thousands of angry questions.